Harold R. Neumann, 89, Pilot Who Won Speed-Racing Titles

Harold R. Neumann, a champion airplane speed-racing pilot in the 1930's who went on to set record cross-Atlantic flight times as a commercial pilot, died on Wednesday in San Jose, Calif., the Associated Press reported. He was 89.

Mr. Neumann was named the fastest airplane pilot in 1935 after winning the Thompson Trophy race in the National Air Races in Cleveland. He also won the Louis W. Greve trophy, piloting his plane, Mike, an average 207 miles an hour for the 75 miles of the race before 65,000 people at Cleveland Airport. Mr. Neumann received $4,500 for his winning effort, cutting each pylon close as he flew around the quadrangular five-mile course 15 times.

The next year he flew his Menasco-powered Folkerts Special to victory in Los Angeles, winning the Shell Trophy in a 100-mile pylon contest of 20 laps before 40,000 people.

In the early 1930's Mr. Neumann, a native of Moline, Ill., barnstormed the nation with a daredevil flying group called the American Air Aces. A 5,000-foot dive at 350 m.p.h. was one of his specialties.

Mr. Neumann flew for Trans World Airlines for 30 years until he retired as a captain in 1966. At the time, he held the airline time record for a 6-hour, 20-minute flight to New York from Paris. A few months before retiring, he broke the time record to Washington from London with a 7-hour, 1-minute flight. In 1958 he was the pilot on the first nonstop Europe-to-Chicago commercial flight.

Mr. Neumann was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Hammondsport, N.Y., in 1971.

He lived in Kansas City, Mo., and in the Kansas surburbs of Fairway and Leawood before moving to California in November.

He is survived by a son, Denis, of Redwood City, Calif.; a daughter, Ann James of La Selva Beach, Calif.; a sister, Bernice Vowl of Phoenix; three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

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A version of this obituary; biography appears in print on July 8, 1995, on Page 1001026 of the National edition with the headline: Harold R. Neumann, 89, Pilot Who Won Speed-Racing Titles. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe